Fish in
the
News.
Each
week the
Bailey
Brothers
start
the Pet
Fish
Talk
Show
with
some fun
and
interesting
stories
about
fish in
the
news.

A Shark with Legs?
A worker at the Malaysian Fisheries Development Board (LKIM) in Batu Maung, Penang, was given this unusual Shark with Legs recently by a fisherman.

This Tilapia, a cichlid species, can change gender gender, because its gender is determined not only by its chromosomes, as it is in humans, but also by environmental conditions such as the presence of hormones, which can be effected by chemicals in the water.

University of Reno
in Nevada, has launched the Mega Fish project in conjunction with the National Geographic Society, in a last ditch attempt to save “the real-life Loch Ness monsters and Bigfoots of the aquatic world.”

Children Search for fish that match the descriptions they were shown on their computers as part of an exercise during the Pecham Summer Robotics Camp in Lansing, Michigan.

Glass Sponges, like these, photographed in British Columbia's Strait of Georgia were found this summer off the Washington coast by University of Washington oceanographers.

Niki Atterbury, retail manager at Hughes Water Gardens, walks on a pathway in a greenhouse that shelters enormous water lilies.

From
Malaysia

A
Shark
with
Webbed
Feet?

A worker of the Malaysian Fisheries Development Board (LKIM) in Batu Maung, Penang, made this unusual
find when she was given the 1.7kg fish by a fisherman at the jetty recently. When contacted, Universiti
Sains Malaysia (USM) Muka Head marine research station head Prof Dr Zulfigar Yasin said this is the first time he had
heard of fish with legs found in the Malaysian waters. “There is a possibility that the fish could have swum from other
waters into Malaysian waters. “As far as I am concerned, fish species with legs or bony fins can only be discovered in
the waters of North Sulawesi in Indonesia or South Africa,” he said. Click
here to read the
original story. Special thanks to Jay in Pennsylvania for emailing us the link to this story.

From the
ISME
Journal

Gender
Change
wipes
out
Invasive
Species.

Gender-bending chemicals could provide a new way to
combat invasive species, say researchers. Originally conceived as a cure for the enormous populations of Asian carp and
tilapia plaguing the Mississippi River, scientists now think the approach could be used to battle unwelcome crustaceans,
mollusks, fish, amphibians and reptiles around the world.Invasions of exotic species are thought to be second only to habitat
destruction as a threat to global biodiversity. The traditional approach to dealing with these interlopers has been to
introduce a known predator and let nature take its course. But this has led to numerous disasters — for example, cane
toads swamped Australia after being introduced to control the cane beetles blighting the country's sugar crop. In
Florida, tilapia were deliberately introduced to control an aquatic weed, Hydrilla, that has been choking US rivers
since the 1960s. Two species of snail were also introduced at a later date by the authorities, says Gutierrez, but
neither they nor the tilapia chose to feed on Hydrilla, both preferring native species to the invader.In
2004, alerted to Florida's problems with invasive species, Juan Gutierrez, a bio-mathematician at Florida State
University, constructed a mathematical model of a population in which males carry two different sex chromosomes (XY) and
females are XX. In many species of fish, amphibians, and other animals, gender is determined not only by sex
chromosomes, as it is in humans, but also by environmental conditions such as the presence of hormones, explains
Gutierrez. Click here
to read
more.

At the
University
of Reno
in
Nevada

The
Mega
Fish
Project:
Saving
the Huge
Freshwater
Fish.

Zeb Hogan, a biologist from the University of Reno has launched the Mega Fish project in
conjunction with the National Geographic Society, in a last ditch attempt to save “the real-life Loch Ness monsters and
Bigfoots of the aquatic world.” Various giant freshwater fish species are perilously close to extinction. Far more than
smaller species, they have been decimated by fishing, pollution and dams. “From the point of view of the fish, there’s
nothing worse than a dam.” Says Hogan. “Dams block upstream migration, destroy spawning habitat, and can turn large
stretches of river into ecological wastelands.” Many of these species are simply massive. The Chinese Paddlefish, which
lives in the Yangtze River weighs half a ton and can grow to a length of seven and a half meters, whilst the Giant
Freshwater Stingray has a diameter of up to three meters. Click
here
to read
the
original story. Special thanks to someone for anonymously emailing us the link to this story.

In
Onekama,
Manistee
County,
Michigan,

City
will
Auction
Decorative
Fish to
Protect
Area
Lake.

One Northern Michigan community is raising money to protect its lake. The city of Onekama in Manistee
County will be auctioning off artistic fish to help fund its watershed plan for Portage Lake. The community says it
can't rely on only state and federal funding any more. There are two efforts underway to protect the lake. Fifteen
artistic fish line the streets of Onekama. On Saturday they will be auctioned off to raise money for the Portage Lake
watershed endowment fund. "To the extent that we're aware, this is the first time that a local community has taken this
kind of effort into their hands." says Kathy Irvin, spokesperson for the auction. "We are not going to wait for a
disaster to happen. We have a wonderful lake here right now and we want to ensure it's protected forever." Click
here
to read
more.
Special thanks to
Joshua from Okemos, Michigan, for emailing us the link to this story.

In
Lansing,
Michigan,

Fishing
Trip
helps
Students
learn
Critical
Skills.

Children of Peckham Inc. production workers took a break from studying robotics this week to go fishing.
Or, more precisely, fish studying. The 15 youngsters, ranging in age from elementary through middle school, researched
exotic fish, then visited the office of Greater Lansing Endodontics on Wednesday to see them as they swam in a huge
5,300-gallon aquarium. "I really like this," said RaSondra Evans, 14, who will be a seventh grader at Gardner Middle
School in the fall. "It's different." Learning about the fish and how the aquarium was constructed ties into using
technology to create things, which is a main focus of the robotics camp, RaSondra said. Click
here
to read
more.
Special thanks again to
Joshua from Okemos, Michigan, for emailing us the link to this story.

From
Seattle,
Washington,

Reef
of Glass
Sponges
found
off
Washington's
Coast.

A reef of glass sponges, creating a deep-sea oasis 650 feet below the surface, was discovered for the
first time in U.S. waters off the Washington coast. The sponges are so rich with marine life that scientists call them
"a kindergarten or living hotel." All variety of baby organisms thrive among the reef of yellow and orange sponges,
which look something like hollowed-out, super-sized Cheetos. These "Manhattans of the sea floor" house a diversity of
starfish, crabs, shrimp, rockfish, worms and snails. "It's like being in a very fancy aquarium in an expensive Japanese
restaurant," said Paul Johnson, the University of Washington geologist who found the reef this summer about 30 miles
west of Grays Harbor. Click
here
to read
more.

In
California

Jumbo
Squid
Invadors

The Humboldt squid, or Dosidicus gigas, that is enormous in size of up to 7 feet long and
can weigh over 110 pounds invades central California waters and feeds on local anchovy, hake and other fish populations
for market. An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal says that it is an aggressive
predator that can alter its eating habits and eat the food diet of tuna and sharks that are its competitors. Stanford
University researcher Louis Zeidberg, co-author of the study, says that it is another problem to be dealt with by
fishermen because of its food consumption. Click
here
to read
more.

Evolutionary
Battleground:
The
Placenta

I'd imagine that I share a childhood experience with many of you: raising guppies, with the
memorable adventure of watching them give birth. Unlike most fish, they produce eggs that develop internally and give
birth to live offspring. That feature also introduced me to some of the basics of Darwinian evolution at an early age,
as the newly born fish had to struggle to avoid being eaten by their mother. That distinctive feature of the guppy—live
birth—has also made them a good candidate for a far more sophisticated study of evolution. One of the areas where a
struggle for resources has been proposed to play out is between a mother and her in utero offspring. Offspring
are best off if they emerge from the womb healthy and strong, which they can do by taking as many resources from their
mother as possible. Mothers, meanwhile, are under selective pressure to produce as many offspring as possible, instead
of devoting all their resources to one. That struggle plays out in terms of things like fetal growth rate and placenta
size. In mammals, these factors appear to be regulated in part by signaling through the Insulin-like growth factor 2
(IGF2) pathway, and some results suggest that this is a major evolutionary battleground. But, since nearly all mammals
go the placental feeding/live birth route, detecting indications of this struggle has been challenging. That's where the
fish come in. Guppies belong to a group of fish, the Poeciliidae (which includes the molly, platty, and
swordtail), that have a mixture of embryonic development approaches: egg only, internal egg development, and placental.
This mixture suggests that placental development arose several times and, in some cases, quite recently. The work
provides some great experimental support for the idea that the placenta acts as a battleground between the needs of the
offspring and the needs of their mother. In fish, the battle is between the two immediately interested parties. In
mammals, the data indicate that the father also gets in on the act. The IGF2 gene is imprinted, such that the mother's
copy is shut off in her offspring, and all expression is driven by the father's. It's thought that the imprinting arose
because the father is competing to ensure that mothers favor its offspring with lots of nourishment. Click
here
to read
more.

Study
Suggests
Over Fishing
Yields
Giant,
Cannibal
Fish.

Anglers all have tales about the
one that got away, the fish of legendary size that stripped the line from the reel. A new study suggests why there might
indeed be giants and offers an explanation for how they grow so huge. Turns out fishermen
themselves can be responsible for the monsters. If a lake or pond is over fished, and a lot of the big ones are caught,
the situation is ripe for oversized freaks to develop, according to a new computer model. Click
here
to read
more.

In West
Linn,
Oregon,

The
Wonders
of Water
and
Aquatic
Life

You
don’t
have to
go to
nature.
Hughes
Water
Gardens
can
bring
nature
to
you. The
Tualatin-based
company,
located
just
outside
West
Linn and
on the
edge of
Wilsonville,
oregon, can go
as large
or as
little
as you
desire
to get
the
sights
and
feels of
nature –
plants,
fish and
bubbling,
flowing
water.
Just the
things
to relax
your
body,
mind and
spirit.
“It can
be just
like
nature,
where
everything
is in
balance,”
said Niki
Atterbury,
the
center’s
retail
manager.
“It’s
very
pleasant
to be
around.
“People
like the
sound of
fish.
They
like the
feel of
nature
and
peacefulness.
It’s
like
sitting
next to
a
brook.”
Click here
to read
more.

Black
Lake in
Washington
State

150-kilogram
White
Sturgeon
in a US
Lake

Fisherman
discovered
a
150-kilogram
white
sturgeon
in a US
lake,
although
sturgeons
have
never
been
found
there
before.
Sturgeon
are
commonly
found in
deep
pockets
of major
rivers
that
lead
into the
ocean,
not in
warm
water
lakes
like
Black
Lake in
Washington
state
where it
was
found.
Click
here
to read
the
original
story
and see
a video.
Special
thanks
to Peter
H. in
New York
City for
the link
to this
story.
Click
here
to read
Peter's
blog
about
his
aquarium.

From
London,
England,

Zebrafish
Study
may
point
way to
Blindness
Cure.

The
ability
of
Zebrafish
to
regenerate
damaged
retinas
has
given
scientists
a clue
about
restoring
human
vision
and
could
lead to
an
experimental
treatment
for
blindness
within
five
years.
British
researchers
said on
Wednesday
they had
successfully
grown in
the
laboratory
a type
of adult
stem
cell
found in
the eyes
of both
fish and
mammals
that
develops
into
neurons
in the
retina. Click
here
to read
the
entire
story.
Special
thanks
to Gabe
from
Brooklyn,
NY, for
sending
us the
link to
this
story.

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